Forecaster wins round in suit

Friday

Dec 14, 2012 at 2:00 AM

KINGSTON — Trend guru Gerald Celente has won an early round in a lawsuit against Google and more than 100 Google-hosted blogs that have appropriated his name and likeness in postings, some of which were offensive.

BY HEATHER YAKIN

KINGSTON — Trend guru Gerald Celente has won an early round in a lawsuit against Google and more than 100 Google-hosted blogs that have appropriated his name and likeness in postings, some of which were offensive.

A federal judge has ordered the blogs shuttered pending the case's outcome.

Celente is a widely known and well-regarded trend forecaster; he's the founder and director of The Trends Research Institute and publisher of The Trends Journal. He's a frequent guest commentator in a wide variety of news media, and the suit argues that the counterfeit blogs could irreparably damage his reputation.

"Hopefully, it will dissuade others from using Mr. Celente's name in an internet domain name," said Celente's lawyer, Dyan Finguerra-DuCharme of Pryor Cashman LLP in Manhattan. "It shows that he will protect his name and his mark."

On Nov. 7, Celente filed suit against the blog owners — David Chekroun of Toronto and John Does 1-10 — and Google Inc. on charges of unfair competition, violation of the AntiCybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, and unjust enrichment under federal law; and violations of privacy and publicity rights and deceptive acts and practices under New York law. He's suing Google on unfair competition claims, saying Google allowed the sham blogs to impersonate Celente in violation of Google's own policies.

In a written statement, Celente said "it appears they (Google) intend to evade the trademark issue by trying to hide behind the First Amendment. Thus, anyone being preyed upon by malicious impostors as I have been on Google's Blogger, will be forced to take Google Giant to court in order to get any satisfaction."

Finguerra-DuCharme said if the case against Google succeeds, it could set a precedent holding Internet hosting services accountable if they ignore conduct by hosted sites that violates their policy.

The suit charges that the blogs presented their postings as if they were Celente's work, misleading readers, in order to drive ad clicks that generate revenue for the blog owners.

The blogs appear "calculated to harm Mr. Celente by suggesting that Mr. Celente is the source of certain offensive political and social contents, including anti-Islamic and anti-Semitic statements," the lawsuit states. "Most recently, the infringing blogs have gone as far as making statements about the Vatican being terrorists, Islamic extremism and recent Libyan assassinations, leaving Mr. Celente fearing for his safety given the current political climate."

U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest's preliminary injunction ordered the 105 blogspot domains using Celente's name to shut down until the case is adjudicated, and barred the bloggers from using Celente's likeness or name to suggest the material originates with him.

No legal information was available for Chekroun.

Google, which has until Jan. 9 to file its answer, took no position on the injunction. "Google does take the position that Plaintiffs have no legal claim against Google, and intends to move to dismiss," the company's lawyers, Dennis Hopkins and Timothy Algers of Manhattan-based Perkins Coie wrote in a Nov. 30 letter to the court. Algers referred comment to Google; Google declined to comment on the case.